Literary treats - recommend great reads

Loved reading Eva Baltasar's Permafrost earlier this year. Maybe too caustic for a treat? But the prose is really packed, maybe reads a bit like what it is -- European fiction in translation -- but it was as vital to read as anything I've read in a long time.

They hired me on a Monday, three months after my first article. For the first time, I felt colorless — a dreadful muddle of various hues, an unthinkably grim and grayish green. My skin was like a mollusk shell, my body parched, my muscles fibrous like esparto grass — and inside I smelled of a parking lot.

I enjoyed the two above-mentioned Babitz books too.

loved 'black wings has my angel'

That one’s on my list/pvmic

- The Beginning of Spring (Fitzgerald), my favourite book by my favourite author, the perfect midpoint between her early and late styles
- At Freddie’s (Fitzgerald), the funniest one
- The Beiderbecke Affair (Plater), the best ever novelisation of a TV show (not counting Steven Moffat’s The Day or the Doctor, which is probably too niche for this list)
- Harriet the Spy, one of the few books everyone should read

I really love The Long Secret, the sequel to Harriet the Spy.

I’m just about to start reading that!

Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliot Chaze is another really good NYRB book - a forgotten classic of noir that I can't begin to describe but that made me put the book down and stare at a wall several times while I was reading it.

Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter has a similar effect as this, and goes in a couple of directions you wouldn't necessarily expect from this genre.

May as well start rounding out the list of NYRB Treats. The classic Western Warlock by Oakley Hall was one of my most captivating reads of the last few years. You can see the seeds of Deadwood being planted as you're reading it.

Warlock rules, can confirm

gah i started it last year and had trouble getting into it. i will try again.

lol i basically tried every nyrb classic that the library had five years ago but couldn't get into any of them. the hearing trumpet and the tove jansson book look promising though.

I borrowed my brother's copy of Warlock, didn't read it, and accidentally dropped it through the library return slot because I mistook it for another NYRB book. This is a good reminder that I should get around to ordering him another copy.

The Tove Jansson one is super good.

Ish Reed's early Yellowback Radio Brokedown, The Freelance Pallbearers, and Mumbo Jumbo are short, not sweet, and imaginative, in a fun way (can see where Blazing Saddles might have come from, for inst).
ZZ Packer's Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a stone cold classic collection of modern short stories, funny and scary and touching.
AJ LIebling's The Earl of Louisiana set standards for The New Journalism, also the old journalism; in 1959, he checks out a particularly wild turn in the epic career of Louisiana Gov. Earl Long, little brother and lifelong rival of the sainted Huey. Sprung from an asylum after brief, pesky experience, he revs up to run for re-election yet again, though now even his juggling of various shades of black-creole-cajun-WASP-country-urban-etc. interests, also the rich, who tend to hate him but make some deals, even his skillz are tested by backlash vs. civil rights movement, as both sides begin to accelerate
---Liebling is well-quaiified to hobnob with sources in NOLA and elsewhere, but mainly he's partaking of the insider gossip, while observing with the eye of a quick study and very seasoned pro (was war correspondant as weill as appreciator of racetracks and victuals, also one of the best New Yorker rovers of his era). Edutaining as all hell, serious too, and not very long (I checked pape count for all of these) _
This may well have been an inspiration for the Coen Brothers movie in which Paul Newman played Earl (good job, though visually a stretch).
Ditto for Billy Lee Bramner's The Gay Place, three novellas from the orbit of a Texas governor w some of the same feats and challenges as Earl (and some other historical pols of those crispy times)---but TGP is too long for this list sry

yes, i have and have read the tove jansson. it's also short!

oh i meant to say and is very good lol

Oh yeah, and Thomas Farber's Tales for the Son of My Unborn Child Berkeley, 1966 - 1969: thoughtful portraits of men and women he knew, also turns the camera around when he gets embarrassingly involved with a sub-Gurdjieff cult leader, a swaggering asshole, shitting on your illusions (worse than Mr. Natural, because realer, although we're left to judge, if we care to, how much of this collection is fiction).

Ah cool, so is Capek worth reading in general, then? Obv famed for popularising 'robot', but I've never been sure if he's worth digging into in his own right.

Yes! I adore Capek, and I went back and forth between recommending War With the Newts, his short story collection Tales from Two Pockets, and a work called Three Novels that might be my favorite but that I ruled out because it could be classified as experimental. He's remembered more for the sci-fi stuff because it's so prescient - he specializes in scenarios where people invent something dangerous, become economically dependent on it, and then keep using it when it's clear that it's actively destroying the world - but he's also good at the small-scale stuff; he's human and humane and funny and dark and intensely empathetic. He's a realist, a magical realist, a satirist, a visionary, and the most grounded and approachable of philosophers. I love him in the same way I love John Prine.

Damn, that's me sold!

Ish Reed's early Yellowback Radio Brokedown, The Freelance Pallbearers, and Mumbo Jumbo are short, not sweet, and imaginative, in a fun way (can see where Blazing Saddles might have come from, for inst).

Was thinking about suggesting Mumbo Jumbo myself, actually (I haven't read the others). There are elements that I would describe as experimental but it really carries you along, definitely was a fun treat for me when I read it.

Seconding Out Stealing Horses.

Adding

Love and War in the Appenines - Eric Newby’s beautifully written memoir of being a POW, escaping and then hiding out in Italy during WW II.

Edisto - Padgett Powell. Novel about a boy growing up on the South Carolina coast with an eccentric mother.

I think I read the Newby book under the title of When the Snow Comes, They Will Take You Away. It was really good.

If the question is 'what's a book that's just enjoyable to read?' -- then my most immediate answer is probably: Raymond Chandler, eg: FAREWELL, MY LOVELY.

I've only read Long Goodbye (loved) and Big Sleep (good on a sentence level, story kinda generic). Are any of the others as good as Long Goodbye, or like The Big Sleep, but better?

Two of my favorite pure treat books, just 100% delightful to read, are Brat Farrar and The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey. Both classic mystery novels but with much more emphasis on the novel part than the mystery part.

Oh cool, need to check her. After inspecting the Parker jacket in Lucy Sante's Maybe The People Would Be The Times(2020--great collection, but prob too long and experimental for this thread, so don't repeat DON'T READ IT), I did finally get to Dirty Money, l Richard Stark's last, only one local library has---doesn't matter, prob could have been at any point in the series, at least after the first, blanking on the title, but filmed as Point Blank, one of the best crime pix of 60s, next to Get Carter. In the debut, there's a revenge factor, but once he gets his groove on, Parker's just stealing to steal, doesn't even seem thrilled by it, or anything, just wants to get a plan and a crew together and go do it, as true catalyst, unaffected by the changes he causes, the havoc in other lives, leagues, other crims, and some unwitting accomplices, later w shrewdie self-images shattered ("How could I have missed that??")
What an asshole, and I was rooting for him to get caught, though I think Sante mentioned that he'd done fine in prison, duh. Not perfect, but kept me reading for sure.

"leagues other crims" I meant "colleagues, and other crims" (others being targets, also side-switchers when nec., though he still screws with them)

I really love The Long Secret, the sequel to Harriet the Spy.

― Lily Dale, Wednesday, November 17, 2021 8:15 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I’m just about to start reading that!

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, November 17, 2021 8:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Often my favorite novel

I'm more involved with Inspector Maigret, whether he 's emotionally drawn into his latest case or not: sometimes he's just breaking it down w expertise, w something seedy and poignant through the cracks: good enough explanation for him, as he's thinking about a little paperwork, stopping in for a drink, home again so the wife can "feed him like a toddler," as one female Simenon historian observed.

Most recent fave: A Maigret Trio---Three Novels Never Before Published In The United States (early 70s, which is when he'd lived in the US long enough to get into English well enough to become dissatisfied w earlier translations, launching a big redo of complete works, which concluded fairly recently, if at all, really)
All from the Inspector and his creator's last professional decade, and figures from M.'s past figure, professionally-emotionally, in different ways (usually sucks for him, great for us).

i like those too. they are definitely treats.

Lily Dale, thanks to your campaign, I did keep digging into the Collyer Brothers family values 'til I reached Wives and Daughters!

Srsly Louise Fitzhugh rules. She taught me a lot.

I found a like-new Penguin copy of Wives and Daughters in one of those "Take a book, leave a book" boxes (a system that I've been slightly abusing). Thinking of starting that or The Man Who Loved Children.

My WaD is Wordsworth Classics; I don't recall anything else published by them, but this edition seems okay (?) At least, it is Complete And Unabridged, With an Introduction and Notes by Dinny Thorold, University of Westminster, this edition published 1999, Introduction and Notes ©2003 Dinny Thorold.
For my husband Anthony John Ranson with love from your wife, the publisher, eternally grateful for your unconditional love.

publisher, listed as Wordsworth Classics Director: Elene Gavriel Ranson.

Chuck Tatum: FWIW I'd be inclined to say that FAREWELL, MY LOVELY is like THE BIG SLEEP but better. (Also better than THE HIGH WINDOW, but THE LADY IN THE LAKE, now I think of it, is remarkable.)

If anyone is looking to follow up on any of the NYRB Classics recommendations above, they're having a flash sale weekend.

ty! good tip

Wordsworth Classics are the staple of those remaindered bookshops that no longer exist in Hammersmith and Notting Hill, extensive range of classics, like a bookcase full, decent enough quality and only £1.99 each.

My NYRB recommendations would be Warlock, On the Yard by Malcolm Braly and The along Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson

hard rain falling by don carpenter and butcher's crossing by john williams (these are both also treats)

it's not a nyrb classic but my answer is 'darryl' by jackie ess. my ILB review here Are You There, God? What Are You Reading In The Summer Of 2021?

High Wind in Jamaica is another v.enjoyable NYRB classic

Not exactly a hidden treasure, because it was such a hit in its day, but a quick, engaging book and a treat if you've not read it yet: Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain.

Much more obscure, because much older, but a fun book of the sort that often gets called "a romp": The Grand Babylon Hotel, Arnold Bennett.

Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but I found Under the Glacier, Haldor Laxness, very enjoyable.

Any of yall read Grand Hotel? (Yet another NYRB Classic, I now see.) Always enjoy it on TCM. A best seller, at least in Europe, then on stage (will prob be a Broadway musical, then a movie of that)(wait,
reference to the recently WAYR?-cited Adventures In The Screen Trade here:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Hotel_(1932_film) Scroll down to Aborted late 1970s musical remake)

i read a different Arnold Bennett, The Card, recently and it was similarly a romp. was expecting North and South but set in the potteries, got something Norman Wisdom would be in the film of.

(ha, actually, Alec Guinness, petula clark)

hard rain falling by don carpenter and butcher's crossing by john williams (these are both also treats)

I prefer Butcher's Crossing to Williams's more acclaimed Stoner

i was looking at that but i haven't read it. i ordered augustus in the nyrb sale.

butcher’s crossing is amazing, not sure i’d call it a treat

I saw that Williams did a novel on the emperor Augustus that I may have seen locally and not payed attention to. Not sure if it was that or a different book by the title. Saw it on the NYRB page and thought oh is that that? Different edition anyway.

Wanna get back into my middle school fave Saki, but library only has Complete Works in one smallish (Modern Library-style) volume: tiny type!! I may read it anyway, 'til eyeballs rebel.

xpost Muriel Spark: o hell yes The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is great gateway, and just the right length for this thread.

up in the old hotel - this is a whopper which is against the rules which are made to be broken, but it's a collection of smaller pieces tbf
(and skip the fiction probably) Did Mitchell write fiction? Would like to check it if so.

There has been some controversy in certain quarters over how much fiction may have crept into Mitchell's nonfiction. IIRC a few of the pieces in "Up in the Old Hotel" are labeled as fiction. Some others may have been "embellished". They are definitely treats though. Of books I've read recently the one that might best meet the criteria laid out for this thread is "Price of Salt" by Patricia Highsmith, i.e. an effortless, engrossing read.

There are all sorts of shades of 'non-fiction', depending on the subject matter and how the author decides to present the material.

Embellishment is intrinsic to any kind of storytelling that pretends to convey a sense of life and action, no matter how strongly it is based in actuality. I guess the phone book (which soon will be completely obsolete as a thing known and familiar) would be a good example of minimally-embellished non-fiction, but even a phone book could be said to impose tiny amounts of imagination and coloration upon the bare facts.

Yeah, but I read (and skip the fiction probably) as distinguishing between two sets of publications, as if the author or someone since had straight-up designated, say, features over here, short storied over there.

justin3 recommended “The Gone World” upthread & i read it last week

holy shit. a horror/scifi that really pushes the boat out. the horror is legit scary af, the scifi is v ambitious, really well written.

it was described as true detective meets inception but inception is wrong. maybe edge of tomorrow?

anyway, get into it, genre-nerds

xp yeah I was referring to the handful of short stories collected in up in the old hotel which were explicitly published as fiction

Thanks! Didn't remember that distinction, will have to re-read with it in mind, though was pretty sure he at least massaged some of his material. (In Joe Gould's Teeth, Jill LePore says that some documents have come to light which Mitchell couldn't have known about, but also 0 indication among his copious papers that he ever responded to several people who offered to be interviewed etc re Gould.)
The Wikipedia article on Mitchell incl. several pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker this century (think it was the most recent one that I read and liked):
Wiki page has links for each, though they're behind account wall; dunno if you can just sign up and view w/o having to pay)
2000–2015
Takes Takes (May 28, 2000)
Street Life Personal History (February 3, 2013)
Days in the Branch Personal History (November 24, 2014)
A Place of Pasts Personal History (February 9, 2015)

xxp i also read 'the gone world' on justin3's recommendation and it was v. good

however

as someone who grew up in southwestern pennsylvania at the same time as the protagonist (I was born a year later), i feel compelled to point out that teenage girls there in 1985 who dressed like madonna or had michael jackson jackets absolutely did *not* listen to AC/DC (especially not powerage, which didn't even have a hit?!)

otoh the author might have simply been heightening the contradictions? get out of my head

I really wish someone would read Keith Maillard, perhaps only to disabuse me of the notion that he’s utterly fabulous. I and about a dozen other people think he’s a treasure - and his books are a treat. Anything, really, but I was knocked out by his latest novel, Twin Studies.

An English Murder, Cyril Hare - Cozy mystery, set at x-mas no less, but with real life 50's politics intruding - aristocratic family includes a cousin who is Chancellor of the Exchequer in the labour govt as well as a son leading a neo-fascist group; the Poirotesque outsider, a Hungarian Jewish academic, is a holocaust survivor. Breezed through it, great stuff.

Sigrid Nunez has been doing it for me lately, The Friend and What Are You Going Through? total gems